Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Historically, people have often thought that having a disability or an illness meant that you were a sinner, or that some sort of evil had touched you. So, in some ages, the hearing loss I have would have been a sign that both my parents and I were sinful people – they, because they had a disabled child, and me because I couldn’t hear or speak quite normally. Even in today’s world, I think that we sometimes have that kind of attitude. For example, obesity is often seen evidence that a person lacks personal strength to eat the right kinds of foods, perceived as their personal shortcoming. This is the case even though we know there are some other causes for obesity and weight gain, including hormonal imbalances and side effects of certain medications. But beyond that, I know that I sometimes allow my disabilities to be a reason why I “can’t” do something. Disability is limiting and it can be hard to get the nerve (or energy) to do something (for me, that would be public speaking or going to a concert with my husband) because it’s easier not to fight to hear or move or see.

That’s why I find today’s scripture readings so fascinating, because they mess with our sense of bodies. I think all of us are, in some way, “disabled” (even if not in a legal sense) and experience limitations that are both within and NOT within our control. All of us allow our bodies to limit us at times. But ultimately, today’s scriptures show us that we ourselves, no matter how we look or how other people think we are, can be part of God’s salvation.

The gospel reading (Matthew 5:27-32) paints a bit of a horrible picture at first glance. Jesus first says that even those people who commit adultery in their hearts have sinned. And then he goes on to suggest that if you’re having problems with your eyes or your hands – if they’re causing you to sin – you ought to cut them off. How many people do you know who haven’t offended someone else, or lusted after someone else, or otherwise done something sinful? Wouldn’t we all be limping around in the streets, with no eyes or hands? But Jesus expects that we will follow him, regardless. We will do whatever it takes (!).

It’s a shocking scripture, which is why today’s first reading (2 Cor 4:7-15) lends further clarity. Here Paul discusses many paradoxes about bodily experience. Paul suggests that he and the other disciples who are witnessing to others about Jesus are struck by how much death and life go together: “afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned…” and so on. They reached the brink of horrible human experience (persecution, even torture) and still find themselves believing in God. Not just that, but in those experiences of near death, they find themselves buoyed by a sense of God’s presence. Their bodies are being disabled because of their constant witnessing to what Christ has done, they constantly put themselves in the path of possibly dying at the hands of the authorities, and yet, they are alive and witnessing to life!

Today’s scriptures are all about going the extra distance, doing whatever it takes to follow Christ, even at great personal cost. This is difficult. But the promise we have is that there is life there. If Paul, having been beaten, imprisoned, starved, and tortured, can still say that he has life in Christ, perhaps I can push myself to follow Christ too, in ways that I have avoided because of all my “disabilities”.!

- Jana M. Bennett